USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 2.4 million barrels from the week ending August 15 to the week ending August 22, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

This report was released on August 27 and included data for the week ending August 22. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 418.3 million barrels on August 22, 420.7 million barrels on August 15, and 425.2 million barrels on August 23, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 404.2 million barrels on August 22, 403.4 million barrels on August 15, and 377.9 million barrels on August 23, 2024, the report revealed.

Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.662 billion barrels on August 22, the report highlighted. Total petroleum stocks were down 3.6 million barrels week on week and up 6.8 million barrels year on year, the report showed.

“At 418.3 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.2 million barrels from last week and are at the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased and blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.8 million barrels last week and are about 15 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels from last week and are 13 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it went on to state.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.9 million barrels per day during the week ending August 22, the EIA noted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. The EIA highlighted in the report that this was 328,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 94.6 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in its report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 10 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased by 112,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.2 million barrels per day last week, according to the EIA’s report, which pointed out that this was a decrease of 263,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.4 million barrels per day, 0.4 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said in its report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 767,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 141,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 21.2 million barrels a day, up by 2.5 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged nine million barrels a day, down by 1.1 percent from the same period last year,” it added.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 7.7 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 1.7 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

The EIA also noted in its latest weekly petroleum status report that the national average retail price for regular gasoline increased to $3.147 per gallon on August 25, which it pointed out was “$0.022 more than last week’s price, and $0.166 less than the year-ago price”.

“The national average retail diesel fuel price decreased $0.005 to $3.708 per gallon, $0.057 more than the price one year ago,” the EIA added in the report.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, as of August 28, the average regular gasoline price in the U.S. is $3.210 per gallon and the average U.S. diesel price is $3.712 per gallon.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team late Monday, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down by 1.9 million barrels for the week ending August 22.

“This follows a 6.0 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance again realizing looser than our expectations,” the strategists said in that report.

In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on August 20 and included data for the week ending August 15, the EIA highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, decreased by six million barrels from the week ending August 8 to the week ending August 15.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com